Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann,

concerned at:

—the failure of the Government to fulfil promises made in this House by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children to introduce legislation to provide for an independent statutorily-based inspection regime for all nursing homes;

—the lack of information and transparency about standards applying to nursing homes; and

—the failure to make current inspectors' reports easily accessible and available to the public, nursing home residents and their families;

calls on the Government to:

—prioritise the drafting of the promised legislation so that it is introduced in this session of the Dáil;

—make all inspection reports directly available to residents of nursing homes and their families and accessible to the public, free of charge; and

—ensure that the nursing homes inspectorate is resourced with relevant professionals.

This motion addresses the social services inspectorate that is supposed to look after people in public, private and other forms of residential institution within this State. It was promised but not delivered by the Government during 2005. We are calling on not only the Government but particularly the Taoiseach to move on this issue. If he is happy to look after the child care needs of children in Latvia and Poland, the least he could do is look after issues surrounding the care of the elderly in his own country. He has paid lip service in the past 12 months to this as a priority for his Government.

The charge against the Government tonight is that there is no commitment to the care of the elderly in the community or residential sector. The Government has dragged it heels on this issue and kicks and screams against every proposal made by the Opposition. It only moved on issues related to the care of the elderly in the last budget because there will be an election next year. Prior to that, nothing was done for the care of the elderly in the lifetime of this Government.

See this speech in context